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The Spider and the file is probably one of my favorite poems of the sixteenth century. Like a morality play this poem is full of argument , dialogue and allegory, and Heywood takes his time to explore this situation, Perhaps I just like it because... Continue Reading →

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The Position has been filled . This year will be the first year I will be exhibiting at the NY Book Show. I have been hard at work, cataloguing, packing and writing a New Catalogue for this event. In addition... Continue Reading →

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Today, as I sometimes do, I'll write about the process of being a rare book dealer, or at the least some of the processes I go through, finding,buying and eventually (and hopefully) selling early books. I l think that the... Continue Reading →

The engraved title page of Coryats Crudities (1611). The word “crudities,” like the French “crudités,” suggests something under-cooked or unrefined.

In May 1608, Thomas Coryat of Odcombe set out from London with little money and only one pair of shoes on a voyage that took him through France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands. Travelling approximately 1,975 miles (3,175 km) alone and unarmed, sometimes walking as far as 36 miles in a single day, he acquired the well-deserved nickname, “the Odcombian Legstretcher.” Returning to England in October, he hung his well-worn shoes in the church at Odcombe (with the rector’s permission) and began compiling his observations into what would become more than 650 pages of descriptive prose, published in 1611 as Coryats Crudities.

“A delineation of the Amphitheater of Verona expressed in that forme wherein it flourished in the tyme of the Roman Monarchie, only the greatest part of…

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628G John Playford 1623-1687 An introduction to the skill of musick : in three books: by John Playford. Containing I. The Grounds and Principles of Musick, according to the Gamut: In the most Easy Method, for Young Practitioners. II. Instructions... Continue Reading →